


a beating heart of stone

by savrenim



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, all the colors appear it feels weird to tag them, but I think it came out readable, sci fi with a little bit of fantasy thrown in, this is the incredibly weirdly self-indulgent fic in which I live for crewmate-imposter friendships, you are not expected to recognize any characters or setting and it combines sort of in media res
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27108544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savrenim/pseuds/savrenim
Summary: Lukkanat Faubasson was just trying to get home. He did not particularly care if he died along the way.It was just his luck to have a rather suspiciously task-free self-appointed bodyguard sicced on him whodoes.
Relationships: Crewmate & Impostor (Among Us)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 87





	a beating heart of stone

Lukkanat Faubasson glanced at the landing pad where hundreds of crewfolk in the same terrible gaudily colored suits as him were milling around, looking for their assigned platforms. 

His brother had offered to pay full passage back to Kaltara with proper escort on a proper armed cruiser. That had been nearly five years ago. His brother had since died, leaving him head of Senherra, and he could not officially authorize Senherra funds for an escort back until he'd been sworn in by the Koter. 

He had no intentions of accepting, of course. But he had to be there in person to turn it down, which meant that his only way home was to hop from Skeld to Skeld, taking advantage of free passage in return for working upkeep on the frankly horrific little frigates, and hoping that he wasn't murdered by shapeshifting aliens that everyone here seemed so upset about. 

Or maybe that he was. He was finding it hard to care. 

He was supposed to report to Launchpad 15, so he pushed his way through the slowly dispersing crowd to join what would be his crew for the next few days. Somewhere that no one had to see his face, know his name, where he would be just another Blue until they reached the first refueling station and shuffled crews. To make up for. You know. All the murder.

"Blue-156?"

Luka kept walking.

Again, louder: "Lukkanat Faubasson!"

He sighed and turned. 

There was a man speed-walking towards him, and next to that man a figure in a white space suit, helmet already up. The man scanned him with something, took note of the result with a small huff and smile, and then addressed him properly.

"Launchpad 15?" the man asked.

"Yes," Luka said curtly. 

"Fantastic," the man said. He turned to the white suited figure next to him. "Saes, you mission is to keep Lukkanat Faubasson alive, and make sure that he gets to his destination securely. That takes priority over everything. Do you understand?"

"Yessir," said the white-suited figure.

"The fuck?" Luka said, because he could. He was just a crewmate here, not an ambassador. 

The man waved a hand. "I'm with the Nexus. There has been some danger on Skelds lately with the Imposters. We've found it safer to randomly assign bodyguards to some passengers. Your name came up in the draw. Saes is the best, you won't even notice her."

"Not interested," Luka said.

"We weren't asking," the man said. "Saes, you come back alive too, that's an order, you understand?"

There was a very long silence in which Luka stood awkwardly, feeling like he had lost his window to leave but also he had in no way shape or form signed up for this sort of secondhand embarrassment, let alone a bodyguard from 'the Nexus', whatever that was; when Saes started laughing. It was an abrasive, startling thing.

"Yessir," Saes said, and then she glued herself to Luka's hip in all but the literal sense. Considering how intense she seemed to be about it, Luka was fairly certain that it was all but in the literal sense because she didn't have any glue on her.

He sighed.

This was going to be a long few weeks. 

###

"Don't you have tasks to do?" Luka asked on the first day when it seemed like Saes really was just going to follow him around.

"I have one task," Saes said.

"Okay so you can…go do it?" Luka said. "If it's not in Reactor you don't have to be here with me in Reactor."

"My task is where you are," Saes said. "My task is to protect you."

"That's— forget it," Luka said. 

This was going to be a long few weeks indeed. 

###

It took four days before anything happened. Green and Yellow found Cyan's body in Navigation when they had been coming up from Coms. 

"Alright, where was everyone?" Red asked. "I was with Purple in Reactor, I think I saw Black in Security."

"Yeah, I was in Security," Black said.

"I was in Electrical with White, doing tasks," Luka said. 

"What tasks?" Yellow asked.

"Calibrating, rerouting power, then wiring," Luka said. "White was with me the whole time."

"What was she doing?" Red asked. 

"Watching me," Luka says. "Like she's been doing every single day since we got here."

"That's kind of sus," Yellow said.

"Electrical is terrifying," Purple said. "I don't blame Blue for wanting someone to watch his back."

"Unless they're both imposters," Black said. 

"Imposters don't team up like that, it's the stupidest move," Red said. "They probably were doing tasks. Let's concentrate on Lime and Pink, where were you?" 

"I was in Admin," Lime said. "There was one person in Nav for a long time, I was ready to go body-checking when I passed Pink coming through Cafeteria from the right side of the ship."

"Yeah, because I had Weapons!" Pink said. "And I was— I was in Med bay before that! I didn't go down anywhere in the right hand side of the ship!"

"I've been in Admin for a while and no one was in Med bay," Lime said. 

"I don't think I saw anyone coming out of Med bay," Black said. "Can anyone else confirm your location?"

"I— I didn't see anyone!" Pink said. "But it's not me!"

"We don't need to vote on nine," Luka said. "Don't we have a scanner in the Med bay? We could check everyone and be sure."

"It can only do a handful of scans a day," Black said. "Ship policy is to save it for scheduled checkups and emergencies."

"This kind of seems like an—" Luka started to say.

"Yes! Yes! Scan me!" Pink said. "I— I had a scan but I can do it again tomorrow and then all of you will see!"

"You're protesting a lot for someone who is innocent," Yellow said. 

"But I'm—" Pink said.

"There's no hard proof, you're really going to vote on nine?" Luka said.

"This one seems pretty open and shut," Lime said. "And you are very quick to jump to Pink's defense, Blue. That's making you pretty suspicious yourself." 

The rest of the crew seemed to agree. 

Luka tried to feel anything as he watched them throw a living, screaming person out the airlock. He'd been warned, when he wanted to leave Kaltara. Warned by his brother, his mother, Sirrem-Rakta, even Lik'na. That there was nothing of worth outside of the Kaltan system, that they were brutal savages out here.

Saes had voted to skip too. That had to count for something.

###

The next kill happened while Luka and Saes were with Black in navigation; Black hadn't wanted to do his download alone so he'd asked Luka to come with him, and where Luka went, Saes went. It was Orange, in the hallway down from Reactor, and apparently it had been while lights were out.

Lime, Red, Purple, and Yellow, who had all been in the general area at the time and had started running for lights, apparently all did not see anything.

"So it's got to be Yellow, right?" Lime said. "We all started running for lights together, I was first, then Red, then Yellow, then Orange. Purple came into Electrical afterwards from the right side of the ship. If Black, White, and Blue were together, unless you saw anyone doubling back, any of you, it had to be Yellow."

"Th—there's a vent in Security to Electrical," Yellow said. "One of you could have— could have gone faster and vented in and out and—"

"We were practically on top of each other the whole time," Lime said. "It's you, let's get this over with."

Luka, Saes, and Yellow skipped. Lime, Red, Purple, and Black voted for Yellow. The second time watching someone die was no prettier than the first.

"You two really need to stop skipping," Lime said. "Now that there are only six of us left, it'll tie any votes up."

"I thought we just tossed the killer off the ship," Luka said. "Was that not the whole point of everyone sitting around and sentencing someone to death in ninety seconds? Or were we wrong, Lime?"

"No," Lime said. There was something weighted in their pause, and it didn't feel like they were looking at Luka as they addressed their reply. "Just trying to make sure we're all on the same page about our survival, that's all." 

###

And that should have been that. Except forty minutes later, the oxygen alarm started blaring. Luka and Saes were closer to the O2 room, so they went there first, Luka entering the code while Saes stood watch as always. The blaring alarm didn't go off.

"Admin," Luka said. "We have to get to Admin."

There were seconds left. He couldn't breathe. They weren't going to make it in time. They were in the hallway and there was no way that they'd be able to run around in time. Luka slumped to the ground, he knew he should be running but he slumped to the ground and he couldn't get up.

"It's okay," Saes said. "Stay here. I've got it."

It was the most words he had ever heard her say. 

She patted his head, and then turned and disappeared into the air vent.

Luka's blood ran cold. 

The alarm stopped. 

The vent creaked again, and Saes was back by his side. 

He just sat there, trying not to hyperventilate. She patted his head again. "It's okay. You're safe now." When he didn't do anything, she took his hand and tugged him to his feet, and started leading him back towards the cafeteria. 

He stumbled after her, trying to collect his wits. Trying to— to parse what he had just witnessed. 

_Why he was alive._

Lime and Red were waiting there, which meant that— meant that there might be hope, the training pamphlet said that Imposters would only directly attack the crew if they were evenly numbered. Which meant that it was three on one here, not two on two.

Luka could do it, he just had to open his mouth and say that he saw White venting, get White— this _thing_ — get _Saes_ killed for probably saving them all—

When it suddenly turned out that there wasn't just one Imposter left on the ship as Lime's body split open and impaled Red with a spiked tongue. 

Lime turned to Saes. 

"You going to do the honors, or am I really going to have to carry this whole mission?"

Luka— he must have opened his mouth, he _must_ have been— screaming or— or doing _something_ better than just standing there frozen, gasping, chocking on his own silence, he _must_ have—

but all he could think was that Asterna was going to be so, so happy when she found his body and had the excuse to plunge half the sector into an all-out war. Last he'd heard Aeturnarra and Velitasa were trying to negotiate an alliance, and Lik'na would go feral if he heard Luka was torn apart and eaten, regardless of the terms they parted on. Gods, Sirrem-Rakta might even join her if they ever pieced together that Luka died like _this_. 

And then Saes ripped Lime to pieces in front of him. 

"I— ah—"

"You're safe now," she said, in that same soothing, monotone voice. "The tasks are complete. Navigation was set. There is enough food and life support to make it to the rendezvous point just fine." She paused and peered a bit closer at him. "We could take you to the Med bay and scan you for shock. I'm trained."

"I'm fine," Luka said. He did not want to be in the Med bay alone with an Imposter, not when the doors closed and locked so easily, not when there was a vent, it didn't matter they were the only two alive things on this ship the _idea of being alone with her_ —

"Alright," she said. "I'll clean up the mess. Get some sleep? You look winded."

"J—just st— I— I would like to be alone," Luka managed to eek out, which wasn't him at his best, but to be fair, he had just nearly suffocated and been torn to pieces by an imposter and had instead watched two other people— well, one other _person_ — torn to pieces in front of him. He was a little bit shaken up.

"Okay," Saes said. She grabbed a corpse in each hand and began dragging them towards the airlock.

Luka ran.

###

The next ship, Saes followed him to every task, hovering silently exactly the same as she'd done on the first ship all the way up until the moment when they were the only two survivors. And Luka… couldn't stand it. He pulled her aside in Security. 

"Stop following me. Leave me alone," he said. "I— I won't— I'm not hitting the emergency meeting button on you, just leave me the fuck alone."

"That would be dangerous," she—it?— said. 

"Well I _order_ you as the Kaltan ambassador to leave me alone," Luka said. 

"My orders to keep you safe supersede any orders you might give me," Saes said. 

"Keep me safe from a distance, then, until I can call your godsdamned handler and get you assigned to someone else!" Luka said, and he stormed out.

It took him a solid fifteen minutes to calm down enough to notice that he hadn't been followed. 

He went to Communications first, started a download, then to Admin to upload, and tried— tried not to feel terrified over the fact that he was seeing _no_ one. It was a big ship. There were other places that people might be.

He checked Admin— there were some folks in Weapons and Navigation blipping in and out of the sensors as they moved between rooms, two in Reactor, one in Security, one in Med bay, and one in Electrical. He had tasks in Electrical, and, well. If he no longer had his bodyguard that he was still fairly certain was going to brutally murder him, it would be nice to have a safety buddy so that he could at least avoid being brutally murdered by a stranger instead.

The ephemeral safety buddy had disappeared by the time Luka made it to Electric. Luka sighed and made his way to the corner of death to begin rerouting power when the lights clicked out.

He sighed again. At least he would probably catch the whole crew as everyone ran across the ship to fix it. It was slightly safer to be fixing lights than to be standing in murder-corner by the vent during a lights out, so he abandoned the open panel— nearly finished— to flick the lights back on.

He heard the vent scrape.

Well, it was a nice run. He finished turning the lights on and then stood there, waiting, because he wasn't going to outrun an Imposter and he wasn't particularly in the mood to try.

Nothing happened, _almost_ enough that he thought the Imposter had maybe vented out, and then there were sounds of brutal murder from the murder corner. Luka peeked around the huge array of switchboards and into the back of Electric, where Saes was standing over a partially transformed Imposter.

"W— what do we do?" Luka said. "That is— that is not human, I don't think there's a protocol for a dead Imposter, what do we— do we _tell_ them it—"

Saes poked the body and it wobbled like evil jello and suddenly appeared human in every way again. Still ripped into two pieces and very very dead, though.

"This— this is worse. Saes you understand that this looks objectively worse, right?" Luka said.

Saes shrugged, and pulled the emergency lever to report it.

###

The crew, it turned out, was not overjoyed to hear the news of a dead body during the lights out, even if Luka knew that it probably meant that all of them were safe for the rest of the journey, provided he and Saes survived this meeting. 

"Where?" Black asked.

"Electrical," Luka said. "I was there fixing lights. I heard the vent, and, um. The— yeah. And then White came in and reported the body." 

"You know that's kind of sus," Orange said.

"It's not him," Saes said, her voice sharp and low. "Blue couldn't have done the kill. He is not an Imposter."

"Uh, how do you know?" Green said. 

"I saw him," Saes said.

"In the dark?" Orange said. "That's kind of sus."

"He _fixed the lights_ ," Saes said. "Besides, the body was by the vent. I went to check the back of the room, the lights came on, and I saw the vent moving. It was a vent kill in the dark, and both me and Blue are clear, unless you think one of us is third impostering right now."

Luka had genuinely thought that Saes hadn't spoken Ter-common very well from the degree to which she hadn't said a word to him, but it seemed like she might have a better grasp on the language than he did. At least in terms of mimicking how these discussions usually went. 

"There is kill and self-report—" Yellow began.

"I heard the vent too," Luka heard himself say. "It wasn't White, she just walked in. We don't vote on nine. But if you think it was either her or me, we can stick together for the rest of this trip, that way if one of us dies you know the other was an imposter. White, how many tasks do you have left?"

Even though there was no way to tell through the reflective glass, Luka _felt_ Saes stare straight at him. "Just one."

"See, we're fine," Luka said. "Tasks close to done. If we're all on guard, we'll be fine."

This crew seemed a bit less bloodthirsty than the last, because they did all seem willing to skip on nine. They all split up to finish tasks as quickly as possible, and Saes followed Luka to Storage. 

"I'm, um…" Luka stared at the wall where he was supposed to be fixing wiring. _I'm sorry_ was what he was supposed to say, and he couldn't seem to make his mouth make the words. "I can, um. Want me to show you how to fix wiring so that you look less suspicious next ship?"

Saes moved past him silently and in four swift motions, faster than Luka had ever managed, connected all the sparking problem wires. 

"Would it look like that?" she asked, and Luka genuinely had no read on whether she was being sarcastic or not. 

"Fine. Um. If we can finish the rest of our— uh, my— tasks, want to play _tril'kla_ with me in the cafeteria?" Luka said.

"I do not know how to play," Saes said.

"It's a Kaltan game. I'll show you," Luka said. 

"Alright," Saes said. 

Luka still had no read on her, but he hoped— he hoped. 

###

They flew on two more ships with no incident— Saes now doing half of Luka's tasks, as she still managed to avoid ever being assigned her own— before they set down to refuel and swap out crews at Polus. Their next Skeld would be coming in a week, which gave them a one week stint with the five crewmates already there.

Red, Cyan, Lime, Black, and Purple. They were all already on a first name basis, which Luka set his mind to memorize: Mara, Jadi, Kaylan, Elian, and Sala. They were overly friendly, and clearly trusted one another, and broke the 'helmets on at all time' protocol in cafeteria and really anywhere that wasn't outside or Specimen. Half the time they seemed to be doing their own thing that very much wasn't the assigned sets of tasks to keep the outpost up and running, but Luka wasn't here to snitch, so he did his own tasks without comment. Saes was relaxed around all of them, so Luka had to assume that none of them were Imposters. 

"You don't seem particularly worried about the whole, uh, probable death thing," Luka mentioned to Mara and Kaylan one day in the cafeteria. Saes was one table over, playing _tril'kla_ with Sala, which was why Luka knew he really was safe— she was only willing to be more than five feet away from him when she thought there was no chance another Imposter was _anywhere_ nearby. And she seemed to be giving the game her full attention. 

"Oh, we're from Adnec City," Mara said. "Uh, city-station in the Delta quadrant? It's governed by ORACLE, who's been running analysis on just about everything. Adnecians don't get assigned to missions where there will be any danger, ORACLE would stop it."

"That sounds like very dangerous logic," Luka said.

"That's what I said, but we're here because _somebody_ wanted to get data for their project directly from the source," Kaylan said. "Oh, it'll be so groundbreaking! Oh, it's perfectly safe! See, anyone sane thinks that we're all going to die!"

"ORACLE would have stopped us if there were any real danger," Mara said. "Besides, this is fun. Change of scenery. Have you had any trouble on your way here?"

"Saes and I were the only survivors of our first ship," Luka said. 

"Oh," Mara said. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean— I didn't think—"

"It's okay," Luka said. "Not like I really knew anyone but Saes, and we're fine." 

"You two knew each other from before?" Kaylan asked.

"Something like that," Luka said. 

"What are they like? Imposters?" Mara said. 

"Exactly like you," Luka said. "Well. Maybe not _you_ , but they were exactly like the crew we were with."

"How so?" Mara asked. "Speech patterns, walking patterns—?"

"The humans aboard that ship voted to kill as quickly and as easily as the Imposter seemed to be killing," Luka said. "They were all just faceless killers in brightly colored suits. Excuse me for not being able to tell them apart." He paused for a moment, considering. This group seemed to be all but children; that was maybe a little harsh. "The second crew was nicer. No one died. Well, one person died, but only after they'd tried to kill, and in an honorable fight."

 _Honorable fight_ , gods, he sounded like Asterna. Well, that was one cousin of his that he certainly knew would be excited to meet Saes, and, uh, _fight honorably_ in the Kaltan meaning of the phrase.

"The Imposter?" Mara asked.

Luka sighed. "Saes and I caught them venting." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Are you, um, not human?" Kaylan asked. Xe was leaning a bit further away from Luka than when the conversation had started. 

"I'm Kaltan," Luka said.

Mara whistled. "Now _that's_ a diplomatic catastrophe waiting to happen. How does no one _know_? ORACLE had to have— the Nexus surely would do _something_ , Adnec City would _not_ risk being dragged into an all-out war like that, not with the amount of business we've been doing with MIRA." 

_I'm with the Nexus. There has been some danger on Skelds lately with the Imposters. We've found it safer to randomly assign bodyguards to some passengers. Your name came up in the draw. Saes is the best, you won't even notice her._

"The Nexus is your Secret Service," Luka said. He felt like a fucking idiot. If he had bothered to actually study for any of his ambassadorial duties, he would have known that. In his defense, though, he hadn't wanted to be an ambassador, he'd just wanted to leave the planet, and there had been no other way available to him.

"Are you talking about the Nexus?" Jadi said, pulling over a chair as she and Elian joined the table. "They're great. They're not a— they're a volunteer organization, as is all of our government. But almost everyone volunteers for a term, if only because it feels more fulfilling to be contributing something that ORACLE _can't_ , and they get all the most interesting assignments. You know, I heard that they've gotten ahold of and are experimenting on Imposters?"

"There's no way that's true," Mara said. "That goes against ORACLE's code, if they're sentient, which it sounds like they are, the Nexus wouldn't be experimenting on them."

"We're going to need supersoldiers if it comes down to a fight against the Kaltans," Elian said. "Not that I think it definitely will, but it seems like things are pretty tense, right? Senherra ceased all contact with us and they're blocking all attempts to scan within their system. My parents are prepping for war."

" _Elian_ ," Mara said in a particular _tone_. Almost more of a squeak, really.

"What, is that a secret? Like, insider knowledge? Am I not supposed to talk about that in front of Luka? He's a nice dude, right? Get ready for a war with Kaltara or at least stay out of the quadrant, same as don't get yourself killed off by Imposters."

"I've been at equal if not more risk from humans than Imposters, I think, but it's been rather illuminating all the same," Luka said. 

"Oh, are you and Saes Imposters?" Elian said. "Core, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. You seem perfectly nice. We're definitely very pro not killing you, and I guess since we came here in the first place you're pro not killing us. Wow, this is _interesting_ , I didn't think we'd be actually meeting any. Is Luka your real name? Is Ter-common your first language? It can't be, how did you learn it? Osmosis, or did you have to study? Are you shapeshifters or are you lone parasites? Do you guys have your own civilization? What are your motivations? You can't be killing us to eat, you and Saes have been eating normal food, is it a Polus or, like, some other colony thing, are we destroying your habitat?"

"Luka is what my friends call me," Luka said. "My full name is Lukkanata Tui Senherra, _my first language is Kaltan,_ " he said in Kaltan, "and I learned to speak your people's common after I joined Senherra and knew I was going to be traveling throughout your systems. I had to study it myself, but I was assisted in the process through osmosis, as other members of the Kota Senherra knew how to speak it and I am technically a soulbound member. There has been humanoid life on our planet for nearly seven million years, signs of civilization for about one hundred fifty thousand years, and the Kaltan Empire has been around for about eight hundred years. Our society is arranged around soulbound Kotae which is led by a ceremonially elected Koter and our Soothseer. As far as our people can tell, anellir match human DNA exactly, and kotannar seem to be affected somewhat by the soulbinding process. While we have psionic abilities dependent on the Kota we join after soulbinding, there is no evidence that these powers are parasitical in nature. I do not believe that any of us are shapeshifters, although I wouldn't put it past the Umberrum. We are certainly not cannibals; we have the same base diet as you, although all of your food is terribly bland. We are not particularly invested in your planets or colonies, and you would be hard-pressed to disrupt the environment on Kaltara, considering you'd have to get there first and our terraforming stabilization system is rather thorough. Mostly our motivations are to live within our own self-contained society and improve life for our people, although there are factions without our society that are interested in pursuing legal means to open our borders. I apologize as the new Kota Senherra if the rest of my Kota has not been returning your people's messages and you've taken it as a sign of war; I've been a bit far out trying not to be killed by the policies of the company that is your city-state's biggest trade partner to be doing my paperwork. It is nice to know that Adnec City is preparing for war, though. As the prime ambassador to all exterior systems I'm sure that's the sort of thing that will be important to communicate as the Army puts forward their representatives in the upcoming elections and the Haus Kotae are trying to decide whether or not to support them." 

"Oh," Elian said. "Fuck."

"I am quite glad to hear that if Saes and I had been Imposters, you would be equally welcoming," Luka said. He stood. It wasn't too late in the evening yet, but this was the sort of line that one simply _had_ to sweep dramatically out of the room on. Saes seemed to be equally done with her game, and stood in perfect time to dramatically sweep out in his wake. 

They shared a— a look, a smile, a _something_. Elian had thought Luka was an Imposter and now the rest of them all thought Saes was a Kaltan. Maybe third time would be the charm.

###

Luka and Saes sat decidedly alone in the cafeteria at breakfast, with the five Adnecians choosing the furthest possible table from them. Luka hadn't actually meant to crack their fragile peace like this and was trying to think of some sort of ambassadorial way to _fix_ it, when Mara walked over instead.

"We, um, didn't cause a diplomatic catastrophe last night, did we?" she asked.

"No, not at all," Luka said quickly. "That was probably kind of mean of me, I've been stressed working for MIRA and the general transition to being Senherra and it was an outlet. But it was— it was mean of me" (fuck, he'd already said that, hadn't he) "and I shouldn't have done it." A pause. "Um. Pretend it never happened?"

"Sounds good to me!" Mara said with a bright smile.

"So you're all here to study Imposters?" Luka asked, keeping watch of Saes out of the corner of his eye. 

"ORACLE thinks they're either native to Polus, some sort of 'frozen in ice cores awakened when we drilled it up' thing, or first infested a ship on the way to Polus. We found some inconsistencies in the data we were getting from MIRA in ORACLE's banks to study, so we wanted to try to take some baseline readings from Polus ourselves to compare." 

The others glanced over at their now table of three, and Luka gave them a friendly smile. It became a table of seven.

"So what do you think about the Imposters? Other than being convinced that you are in absolutely no danger from them, and wanting to chat with Saes and myself about our Imposter lifestyle?" he said.

"Oh well _this_ is the fascinating bit," Mara said. "We don't actually think they're naturally hostile?"

"Oh?" Luka said.

"We think there's a possibility that someone's programming them to kill," Jadi said. "The attacks are… too specific? They go after MIRA ships and MIRA outposts, but don't seem to be collecting data or sabotaging anything other than direct killing, there's something that's just… that doesn't add up. And they act in very specific patterns, in a— a particular single-minded way? They can try to kill an entire crew and try to blend in and try to do tasks and try to sabotage the facilities but they can't do them all at the same time. Like they've been given a specific set of instructions to follow and can act within those instructions." 

"So you're saying that they're killing crewmates because they are instructed to kill crewmates. That if you told one 'protect the crew' it would try to protect the crew instead of going on murder sprees."

"No, that would never work," Saes said, clearly amused. "'Crew' is too openly defined, it would lead to a compulsion to protect Imposters too, disrupt the eject procedures, trust me, that's a formula for it getting very messy very fast. 'Protect a single person' would put them on the side of the crewmates, though. It wouldn't stop them from killing crewmates, but it would force them to work against the other Imposters."

"You mean ordering them to protect a single person as an absolute mandate they'd be forced to obey beyond everything else?" Luka asked, something sharper in him than he intended.

"Of course," Saes said.

"That's _bullshit_!" Luka said. "Y— they're _sentient_ , what about _free fucking will_ , what about—"

"Do you not have priorities that you care about above all else?" Saes asked, seemingly genuinely confused.

"Yeah, but— they shift, though!" Luka said.

"Oh, that's strange," Saes said. "Like, on their own? Without you stopping and thinking about them? Isn't that uncomfortable?"

"What do you mean?" Luka said.

"Don't you— it's— when you _know_ , ahead of time, what is _important_ , then you know in any given situation— _especially_ when things are moving their most fast and dangerous and you don't have time to think— how to act. You never have to worry about what to do, because you know what you are going to do."

"But what about _choosing_?" Luka said. "What about how you _feel_?"

"What makes you think I didn't choose?" Saes said. "And I told you how I feel. I feel uncomfortable when I do not know how I will act in a given situation." She tilted her head. "Thinking like an Imposter makes more sense in my line of work."

Luka suddenly realized that they had an audience. "Meet my bodyguard, everyone," he said. "Kaltan Kotae. Quite a spread of opinions."

"No, it's good!" Elian said. "Learning about Kaltan culture and your different perspectives is really interesting!"

Jadi and Mara were looking at them in a way that made Luka worry that the two of them were not so easily convinced.

"Speaking of Kaltan culture," Sala said. "The rest of y'all are missing out not playing _tril'kla_."

It was like a collective sigh of relief went through the room, and everyone immediately pivoted to the _tril'kla_ cards and stones and tried to set up a game on the table. Luka had to make up rules for more than four players on the fly, but as there wasn't actually any other Kaltan in the room, no one contradicted him. None of them ended up leaving the cafeteria until well after lunch, but it was fine: they weren't in any sort of danger or rush. 

###

Two people joined them from the next Skeld; much like Saes and Luka, they had piloted it to Polus alone, as everyone else was dead. A Green and an Orange to join their little crew. It was a straight shot to MIRA HQ, where the Adnecians would be boarding a private vessel to return home.

They had been on the ship for two and a half days when the Adnecians stumbled across the body of Green in top cafeteria, and called an emergency meeting. Everyone provided their alibis: the Adnecians had been sticking all mostly within sight of one another on the left hand side of the ship, moving between Reactor, Security, and Med Bay, and Saes and Luka had taken Weapons and Navigation. Orange had seen Green in Admin originally and then was all around the bottom of the ship: Shields, Coms, Storage, Electrical, but had never returned to Cafeteria. 

"Well, we know it wasn't one of us," Kaylan said a bit apologetically. "So it's either Saes, Luka, or… sorry, Orange, I never caught your name."

"We don't go by names here, Lime," Orange said. 

"It's not either of us," Luka said. "We were together the whole time and can vouch for each other same as all of you can vouch for each other. And there was no danger on Polus. So…"

"Actually, that's not true," Jadi said. "Just looking at incident reports and tracking mission flights, it is obvious that sometimes Imposters don't kill to… blend in, get on the flight they want to get on. Sometimes they leave survivors to have alibis. It's not— just because we were safe with you doesn't mean you're not Imposters. Sorry, we— we didn't grow up with you the way we grew up with each other."

Luka stared at them, one at a time. He could see nothing in the reflective faceplates. "What are the chances of there actually being a Kaltan on a Skeld versus an Imposter who picked a wild cover story and then just decided to stick with it, you mean?" he said. 

"No, I—" Jadi said.

"We trust you," Mara said at the same time. "We— you're our _friends_. And we know that _we're_ safe, we wouldn't be here if we weren't going to be safe, this is just… slightly more up close and personal than we expected." 

"Are we voting or what?" Orange said. "Sounds like you all know each other and had a lovie dovie time on Polus, Red, Cyan, Lime, Black, and Purple are soft clearing each other, and we all claim to have been in different areas of the ship. Skip on eight with not enough information?"

"It's Orange," Saes said.

"What?" Orange said.

"You heard me. I didn't think it needed more explanation. It's not the Adencians, those children couldn't hurt a fly. It's not Luka. I was with Luka. So it's you," Saes said. 

"That's _bullshit_!" Orange said. "If you're playing it like that, it's a one third chance on each of the three of us, and that's assuming that one of them hasn't been replaced by an Imposter and they just haven't noticed! You don't take a _maybe_ one third chance on eight!"

"No," Saes said. "I don't take chances at all."

She was _furious_ , something was making her furious and Luka couldn't figure out what it was, and he was paying attention to her instead of actually pressing the accusation buttons as the meeting wound down. Orange and the five Adnecians had all voted to skip, and Saes had voted for Orange. 

There were a bunch of tense it's-probably-a-staredown-but-we're-all-wearing-reflective-helmets-so-who-really-can-tell's around the cafeteria, then the Adnecians broke off and returned to the left hand side of the ship, Orange went right, and Saes stayed with Luka where it was starting to feel like she'd always been.

"Hey, uh, Saes," Luka said. "Do you want to stick with the kids in a big group and, um, protect them too? If we're over there you can maybe keep them safe and keep me safe at the same—"

"Yes," Saes said. "Yes, yes, _yes_ , let's _go_."

###

Saes and Luka were in Upper Engine with Kaylan when it happened: Orange came out, probably expecting a double kill, and went full on monster at Kaylan. Saes went full on monster back, and put a stop to that before it could proceed. 

This was the third Imposter that Luka had watched Saes kill, but the first one that he properly _saw_ — on the first ship he'd nearly suffocated and was mid panic attack while it happened, and the second he'd only heard in the dark. This time, he actually watched.

It wasn't a fight, not really. Saes was faster than it, stronger than it, she moved far more confidently; it sent out tendrils and she blocked them with her own, smaller, more compact, with slicing teeth at the end. She was graceful and controlled and it was flailing and… _not_. There was never a second in which the outcome of the fight was in question.

And it was over in seconds. 

Then Kaylan, staring at the two of them, hyperventilating the same way that Luka had the first time he saw Saes vent, dashed past them towards the open door and down the hallway. Moments later, the emergency meeting alarm started blaring. 

Luka wondered what it said about him that all he could think was, _well, that's inconvenient._

###

"Oh, fuck, Orange is dead," Jadi said as the other four Adnecians made their way into the cafeteria, checking their meeting screens. 

"Hey, uh," Kaylan swallowed. "Hey Luka. Do you want to explain what just happened?"

"Not particularly, no," Luka said. "You're not dead, are you? Stop asking questions that you don't want answered."

"What happened?" Mara asked. 

"Saes killed Orange in front of both of us," Kaylan said. "It— it must have been— it must have been a failed double-kill, I— I ran for the button as soon as I could."

Luka sighed audibly, because he knew rolling his eyes wouldn't make it through the helmets. "It was _technically_ a failed double-kill. Orange was an Imposter, just like Saes said. It tried to kill Kaylan. Saes stepped in and stopped it. You can put its body on the med scanner, it is not human. No humans were killed, so can we move on?"

"A single human cannot overpower an Imposter—" Jadi said. 

"And a single Kaltan could take out dozens of you without breaking a sweat, and, depending on the Kota, without moving a muscle," Luka said. "You know I'm a Kaltan. Is it really so difficult to believe that I'd come here with a Kaltan bodyguard?" _She's mine, my soul, my kaenokat, my Kota, my family,_ buzzed a magic under his skin. He shook his head slightly to clear it, as much as he could without looking strange to the others; he had managed to ignore that buzz when he'd been a kotannar, he could ignore it now when he was the Kota, legal confirmation or no legal confirmation. 

"That— that wasn't— it didn't look like— it didn't look like a Kaltan fighting," Kaylan said. "It was— there was an Imposter in that room. She transformed. She's an Imposter."

"And now there's a dead Imposter in that room," Luka said. "You're panicking, it's fine, I get it, I've been there, I really have, but the things trying to kill us are gone so maybe we can chill out and get our tasks done for the rest of the flight?"

"I want to hear from Saes," Elian said. 

"Oh, it's simple," Saes said. "Orange was acting sus so I killed him."

And everyone burst out screaming at once and then there were a whole bunch of different hands slamming down on buttons: Kaylan voted for Luka, Mara and Elian voted for Saes, Saes, Luka, and Sala skipped, and for some reason Jadi either forgot to or chose not to vote.

Luka could see Jadi eyeing the emergency meeting button, but he managed to convince the others to _go to Engines and look at the body_ , and once everyone was there the tone shifted: the corpse was very, very clearly that of an Imposter. 

On the other hand, it was also fairly obvious that nothing human had torn it apart. 

"We're, uh, we're not voting anyone out so, uh, off the record, Saes, are you an Imposter?" Jadi asked.

"I'm Saes," Saes said. "See, it says here on my card." She held a card out, which Jadi glanced at and Mara took. "I'm not pretending to be anyone else."

"But you _are_ an alien," Jadi said.

"Yes," Saes said. 

"And you're a Kaltan?" Jadi said. "Are Kaltans Imposters?"

"I'm not a Kaltan," Saes said. "Luka is the first Kaltan that I've met. They're not like me, if that's what you're asking."

"Why are you traveling with Luka, then?" Jadi asked.

Saes shifted. "I'm—"

"We're friends," Luka said. "She's traveling with me because we're friends. She also decided to save Kalyan knowing it would put her in significant danger because we're all friends, so it would be nice if we could go back to acting like friends instead of having this interrogation." 

Saes's hand slipped into Luka's, and squeezed once. "It's alright. You can keep asking questions, if it helps," she said. 

"Is that why you don't kill people?" Jadi asked. "Because you're friends with Luka?"

"I don't kill people because I like my apartment," Saes said.

"I don't understand," Jadi said. 

"That's okay," Saes said. "You don't have to."

"Um." Sala, Elian, and Mara were now all amassed behind the card clutched in Mara's hand. "This, uh. This says Saes Imirin is an Agent-Commissary of the Nexus," Mara said.

"I am," Saes said.

"So, we, um… _are_ experimenting on Imposters?" Mara said.

"No," Saes said. "I just live there, and work assignments."

"Right," Mara said. 

"You wanted to study Imposters, you've got the corpse of one here," Luka said. "Saes, you don't mind if they all start doing science experiments and we can fucking _end this conversation_ , do you?"

"Oh, feel free," Saes said. "That thing isn't the same as me, though. Well, it is, but it's an… inferior copy? All of the things that you've called Imposters have been. I'm not sure if there are any other _me_ 's left." 

"Someone is cloning Imposters," Jadi said. 

"That's for the Nexus to take care of," Saes said. "Right now my mission is to protect my _friend_." She squeezed Luka's hand again. 

"Are we good?" Luka said. 

"Oh, yes, definitely!" Mara said. "We should, uh— we've got scans to run! Would you mind if we redistributed tasks so that we could all get a bit more time with this body? I'm sure MIRA HQ won't let us keep it, and we want to make sure our data isn't corrupted."

"We can do them, if you don't mind, Saes?" Luka said.

"I don't mind," Saes said. "Tasks are calming, I like them."

"Great, thank you," Mara said. "Uh. Meet in the cafeteria for dinner?"

It was a clear dismissal, and one that Luka was very willing to take. "Dinner," he said, and then he and Saes left apparently a clone of one of her possibly now-dead people on the floor for a group of high schoolers to experiment on. 

###

"Did you really mean it?" Saes asked when they were alone. "We're friends?"

"I think we're friends," Luka said. "I feel like we've spent enough time together and been through enough shit together that we're friends."

"Most people don't want to be friends with me," Saes said. "Friends are hard. Friends don't act on logic around other friends, especially in dangerous situations. They try to protect their friends, whether or not their friends actually need protecting, and they get upset when friends don't protect them back, whether or not they were really in any danger."

"I think the only people who are in any danger around you are the ones that you want to be in danger," Luka said. 

"Yes," Saes said. There was a pause. "You understand." Another pause. "We're friends."

There were burning questions that Luka wanted to ask: _will you stay with me, will you walk with me all the way, will you stand there with me on Kaltara when I have to stand against my cousins, against Lik'na, against everyone who ever said they loved me as they tried to rip me apart._

 _'Make sure that he gets to his destination securely'_ was what the man from the Nexus had said.

 _'What makes you think I didn't choose?'_ Saes had said.

 _'Stay with me,'_ Luka didn't ask.

The magic in his blood simmered and _burned_. 

### 

The Adnecians were rushed off to a secure guarded flight back to Adnec City the moment the Skeld reached MIRA HQ, leaving Luka and Saes alone with a large number of suited ground crew, who somehow looked like they really meant business. 

Theoretically, the two of them were supposed to be getting on another Skeld in a few hours, one that would finally bring them to Courseia, then the Scirnese system, and then, _finally_ , the Kaltan border. 

That theory was quickly dispelled when the Purple of the group said, "So we know one of these two is the Imposter. Maybe both. Take them to Med Bay and detain them for testing? We're behind and we could do a _lot_ with a live specimen."

"This is actually the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Luka said as a lackey took him by each elbow. He tried to glance towards Saes, but she seemed to be cooperating. He saw holsters on the hips of the two escorting him. Dart guns, but usually, those were worse considering all manner of nasty surprises that could be injected into the darts.

He trusted her, so cooperating it was. 

Halfway down the hallway, the lights suddenly died, and there were sounds of bloody murder behind him. The grips on his arm loosened, and he felt the push of something that was not quite a hand on his back, and— _stand and fight there is magic under your skin that can bloom into fire, you're not helpless, you're—_

_Friends don't act on logic around other friends, especially in dangerous situations. They try to protect their friends, whether or not their friends actually need protecting._

Saes wanted him to run. He ran. 

He ran down the hallway until it forked in two and chose the right one, ran down it, it seemed to lead to some sort of cafeteria. He scrambled along the walls, barely able to make anything out in the dim light filtering through the windows, and found a small storage closet along the right wall. He quickly closed himself in there, jammed the door shut, and then scrambled to the back and hid behind a shelf. 

He heard the alarm for reactor blaring, and ignored it. The jammed-but-not-locked door shifted, and opened, and closed.

"It's alright," Saes said. "There are a lot of them." She pressed a knife into his hand. "I'll take care of them. You stay here." She wrapped his fingers around the handle. "And stay _safe_."

"I'm not helpless," Luka said. His blood was still _burning_ , his hands itched, he could practically feel the sparks flying off of them. He could end this in a moment. A dozen humans against a Kota? They wouldn't stand a chance. 

"I know," Saes said. "I trust you. Be here when I get back."

Unfortunately, the hostile MIRA— and Luka didn't really have a better word to call them than _soldiers_ — came back first. He slashed at one with the knife and was disarmed immediately and dragged out of the closet to the center of the cafeteria. 

He was _furious_.

There was magic under his skin. Sixty-three souls bound to his, sixty-three lives and the lives and souls of all who had died before them that he could call on and it _sang_ for him to use it, _sang_ for him to immerse his mind in the Kota and _take his place_ like he once would have done without hesitation, the best mage, the most promising of his generation before Lik'na had— just… before; it _sang_ for him to prove that he was more than just a pretty face.

There was magic under his skin that burned _Kaltan_ and he was the _Kaltan ambassador_ and magic tended to leave very specific energy signatures and apparently half the sector thought that war with Kaltara was just around the horizon.

"Come on, now, little Imposter," said Green. "We've got your— what even are you? A human toy?"

"Friend," Luka said, and he could hear Saes's voice echoing alongside his: "He's my friend."

Something clicked in Luka's mind, and he could almost _feel_ Saes's presence. 

"And I'm not human," he said. "I'm Kaltan."

There was an explosion of tentacles— of muscle and flesh and teeth from the vent where Saes had been hiding, and of woven kinetic force and the sheer press of Luka's will through reality as he cast on the fly magic of his own that would entwine with the whirlwind of death that was Saes. Puncture wounds only, nothing that would burn or freeze or radiate, just perfect pure control as Luka drove his mind towards how Saes would think. His magic engulfed her but it did not cut her; she slipped into it like she had been meant to be there, not a kotannor, but an equal. 

It was nearly perfectly clean, nearly just looked like a mass Imposter attack. They decided not to risk it, and after re-fueling the Skeld that they'd arrived on, Saes sabotaged the reactor again, in a way that would cause a proper _explosion_ and bring the whole place down. Saes scrubbed all identification from the ship and re-programmed the systems so that they couldn't be tracked, and they flew off, the only two survivors again. 

Briefly, later, on their way directly to Kaltara, Luka wondered if this might have been the Nexus's plan all along. Saes would be the first outsider to have access to the Kaltan Empire in, well… ever. Her thoughts still felt strange to him, smooth and sharp and cool all at the same time, like glass in the sea. He knew that she had a goal. He knew that she would protect him above all else. He knew that there were things that she wasn't telling him.

He also knew that they were friends. She would go where he went, and he would go where she went, and that was a truth that existed now without question, the happiest choice he'd made since he'd chosen to leave Kaltara in the first place. Maybe he did understand a bit priorities that didn't change. Or maybe he was thinking a little bit more like Saes now, the same way she was probably thinking a little bit more like him.

And his priorities, well, they'd shifted. _What do you want?_ finally felt like a valuable question to ask. What did he want to do? They could stay in Kaltara, cause some trouble. With Saes at his side and the magic in his blood still singing, he would have far more access to the Kaltan political scene than before. At the very least, giving up control of Senherra seemed… like burning a bridge that perhaps he didn't need to burn. But then what? They could keep traveling, maybe visit Adnec City, see if they could find their friends.

Saes's mind perked up at the thought of that.

Whatever they'd do, they'd do it together. Be it stopping a war, starting a war, taking down MIRA, facing _whatever_ awaited them on Kaltara, or just… _living_ and all the messiness that came alongside that. They were _friends_ and they would face it together.

And that was enough that, for the first time, Luka felt a bit excited about the future.

**Author's Note:**

> following my "we can only name fics after lyrics from songs" pattern, title from Natural by Imagine Dragons. 
> 
> requisite apologies to everyone who is here for/has been waiting for any of my other writing to update. the book that the half of this that is _not_ Among Us is based on…. mostly exists? it's into 'draft 2 and editing and maybe commission a cover' phase and I'm stupidly excited about it, and this idea dug itself into my brain to live rent free until I Made It Exist ~~please shout at me about anything or everything I desperately want people to shout at me about these characters and this setting it's my jam~~
> 
> I exist on tumblr [@ savrenim](https://savrenim.tumblr.com/). opus i: saes imirin will certainly be posted there when it's done, as does most of my personal writing.
> 
> edit: while this story is complete if folks are interested in the work that it is based on, feel free to subscribe; when I am finally done and am throwing it onto the interwebs I will add a second chapter with download links?


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